Maggie Kilgour

Focusing on such metaphors as communion and cannibalism in a wide range of Western literary works, Maggie Kilgour examines the opposition between outside and inside and the strategies of incorporation by which it is transcended. This opposition is basic to literature in that it underlies other polarities such as those between form and content, the literal and metaphorical, source and model. Kilgour demonstrates the usefulness of incorporation as a subsuming metaphor that describes the construction and then the dissolution of opposites or separate identities in a text: the distinction between outside and inside, essentially that of eater and eaten, is both absolute and unreciprocal and yet fades in the process of ingestion--as suggested in the saying "you are what you eat.". Kilgour explores here a fable of identity central to Western thought that represents duality as the result of a fall from a primal symbiotic unity to which men have longed to return. However, while incorporation can be desired as the end of alienation, it can also be feared as a form of regression through which individual identity is lost. Beginning with the works of Homer, Ovid, Augustine, and Dante, Kilgour traces the ambivalent attitude toward incorporation throughout Western literature. She examines the Eucharist as a model for internalization in Renaissance texts, addresses the incorporation of past material in the nineteenth century, and concludes with a discussion of the role of incorporation in cultural theory today. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

An Anatomy of Metaphors of Incorporation

From Communion to Cannibalism

Looks at the novels of William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis and Mary Shelley to demonstrate that the gothic presents an alternative model of relations: between individuals, characters, parts of a narrative, men and women.

The Rise of the Gothic Novel

Milton and the Metamorphosis of Ovid contributes to our understanding of the Roman poet Ovid, the Renaissance writer Milton, and more broadly the transmission and transformation of classical traditions through history. It examines the ways in which Milton drew on Ovid's oeuvre, as well as the long tradition of reception that had begun with Ovid himself, and argues that Ovid's revision of the past, and especially his relation to Virgil, gave Renaissance writers a model for their own transformation of classical works. Throughout his career Milton thinks through and with Ovid, whose stories and figures inform his exploration of the limits and possibilities of creativity, change, and freedom. Examining this specific relation between two very individual and different authors, Kilgour also explores the forms and meaning of creative imitation. Intertextuality was not only central to the two writers' poetic practices but helped shape their visions of the world. While many critics seek to establish how Milton read Ovid, Kilgour debates the broader question of why does considering how Milton read Ovid matter? How do our readings of this relation change our understanding of both Milton and Ovid; and does it tell us about how traditions are changed and remade through time?

Milton and the Metamorphosis of Ovid

Milton and the Metamorphosis of Ovid examines the ways in which Milton drew on Ovid's oeuvre, as well as the long tradition of reception that had begun with Ovid himself, and argues that Ovid's revision of the past, and especially his relation to Virgil, gave Renaissance writers a model for their own transformation of classical works.

One of the central images conjured up by the gothic novel is that of a shadowy spectre slowly rising from a mysterious abyss. In The Rise of the Gothic Novel, Maggie Kilgour argues that the ghost of the gothic is now resurrected in the critical methodologies which investigate it for the revelation of buried cultural secrets. In this cogent analysis of the rise and fall of the gothic as a popular form, Kilgour juxtaposes the writings of William Godwin with Mary Wollstonecraft, and Ann Radcliffe with Matthew Lewis. She concludes with a close reading of the quintessential gothic novel, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. An impressive and highly original study, The Rise of the Gothic Novel is an invaluable contribution to the continuing literary debates which surround this influential genre.

Rise Of Gothic Novel

Elena Lombardi

Dantean Dialogues is a collection of essays by some of the world's most outstanding Dante scholars., These essays enter into conversation with the main themes of the scholarship of Amilcare Iannucci (d. 2007), one of the leading researchers on Dante of his generation and arguably Canada's finest scholar of the Italian poet. The essays focus on the major themes of Iannucci's work, including the development of Dante's early poetry, Dante's relation to classical and biblical sources, and Dante's reception. The contributors cover crucial aspects of Dante's work, from the authority of the New Life to the novelty of his early poetry, to key episodes in the Comedy, to the poem's afterlife. Together, the essays show how Iannucci's reading of central cruxes in Dante's texts continues to inspire Dante studies - a testament to his continuing influence and profound intellectual legacy.

Engaging with the Legacy of Amilcare Iannucci

Dantean Dialogues

Contributing to our understanding of Ovid, Milton, and more broadly the transmission and transformation of classical traditions, this book examines the ways in which Milton drew on Ovid's oeuvre, and argues that Ovid's revision of the past gave Renaissance writers a model for their own transformation of classical works.

Maggie Kilgour

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